Boston – October 17, 2017. Today, Digilant, a global provider of programmatic ad buying solutions and services, released a report that captures relevant data for advertisers and media buyers about Holiday shoppers’ consumer behavior and motivations to help brands make their marketing investments more profitable.

Long gone are the days when Thanksgiving was just a day to give thanks and celebrate with family and friends; today, especially to retailers as well as consumers, Thanksgiving Weekend signifies the peak of the Holiday shopping period. Consumers plan to spend an average of $743 during the Black Friday (Nov. 24) to Cyber Monday (Nov. 27) shopping weekend, up 47{49155fae4ec323e414ee440f75ad71293e247f1813a4ec8c4e3e2060f3683931} from last year’s average of $505. Advertisers need to get in front of consumers even earlier than past years to make sure that they are top of mind for those big ticket items, as Black Friday and Cyber Monday are no longer single-focus days. The numbers speak to this and so should your digital media buying plan. The average spending was $289 in 2016, 74{49155fae4ec323e414ee440f75ad71293e247f1813a4ec8c4e3e2060f3683931} of which was designated towards buying holiday gifts.

From a brand’s point of view, maximizing on this window of increased consumption requires a higher investment. E-commerce’s share of total retail sales will reach a record 11.5{49155fae4ec323e414ee440f75ad71293e247f1813a4ec8c4e3e2060f3683931} during this 2017 Holiday Shopping season according to eMarketer.

The highest-spend age demographic is 25 to 34 years-olds, with 62{49155fae4ec323e414ee440f75ad71293e247f1813a4ec8c4e3e2060f3683931} of them making in-store purchases and 58{49155fae4ec323e414ee440f75ad71293e247f1813a4ec8c4e3e2060f3683931} making online purchases.

Millennials spend 13{49155fae4ec323e414ee440f75ad71293e247f1813a4ec8c4e3e2060f3683931} more during Thanksgiving Weekend than the average adult shopper.

It’s essential to factor in mobile creative and spend into a media plan, as most consumers window shop on their devices, and then either make a purchase, or move to their laptops or in-store to checkout.

When Do They Buy?

The typical Thanksgiving Weekend consumer is very aware of deals and promotions, doing some of their browsing beforehand to take advantage of discounts or special markdowns designated for a particular day within the weekend.

For example, according to Statista, in 2016 consumers preferred to go shopping on Thanksgiving evening rather than setting their alarm clocks for early the next morning to take advantage of Black Friday sales. 25.4{49155fae4ec323e414ee440f75ad71293e247f1813a4ec8c4e3e2060f3683931} of these shoppers were in a store by 8:00 pm and 37.3{49155fae4ec323e414ee440f75ad71293e247f1813a4ec8c4e3e2060f3683931} by midnight on Thanksgiving (compared to 28{49155fae4ec323e414ee440f75ad71293e247f1813a4ec8c4e3e2060f3683931} in 2015). In contrast, 35.8{49155fae4ec323e414ee440f75ad71293e247f1813a4ec8c4e3e2060f3683931} of buyers didn’t arrive until 10:00 am on Black Friday last year.

The traffic for the four days that make up Thanksgiving weekend is as follows: 36{49155fae4ec323e414ee440f75ad71293e247f1813a4ec8c4e3e2060f3683931} of consumers on Thanksgiving, 74{49155fae4ec323e414ee440f75ad71293e247f1813a4ec8c4e3e2060f3683931} on Black Friday. 49{49155fae4ec323e414ee440f75ad71293e247f1813a4ec8c4e3e2060f3683931} shop on Saturday and 34{49155fae4ec323e414ee440f75ad71293e247f1813a4ec8c4e3e2060f3683931} on Sunday.

In terms of in-store retail, the breakdown is similar (35{49155fae4ec323e414ee440f75ad71293e247f1813a4ec8c4e3e2060f3683931} on Thanksgiving and 75{49155fae4ec323e414ee440f75ad71293e247f1813a4ec8c4e3e2060f3683931} on Black Friday), but activity slows down on Saturday (40{49155fae4ec323e414ee440f75ad71293e247f1813a4ec8c4e3e2060f3683931}) and Sunday (17{49155fae4ec323e414ee440f75ad71293e247f1813a4ec8c4e3e2060f3683931}).

Despite all of the shopping intentions, there’s a very negative sentiment towards going to brick & mortar stores on Thanksgiving Day according to Deloitte, with 7 out of 10 consumers feeling that stores should be closed on the holiday to allow employees to spend more time with family and friends.

It’s important for brands to align their creative and ad buying strategies with their consumer, especially those users who are in the middle of the sales funnel.

With recent data insights in their hands, brands can segment more intelligently to identify the right target audiences for this Holiday Season. This requires testing segments as early as October and refining them throughout the Holiday campaign.

With more Americans spending time browsing for retail items on their phones, it is also important to factor in mobile creative and spend into a media plan; as most people will shop around on their devices, and either make a purchase, or move to their laptops and desktops to checkout.

About Digilant

Digilant offers programmatic buying solutions and services designed for independent agencies and brands that are increasing their programmatic spending. Using data science to unlock ‘new’ automated buying strategies, Digilant enables brands to uncover proprietary and complex audience data that gives them the actionable intelligence they need to compete across every important media channel.